Hyunwoo wasn't sure if he had actually recovered or if his mind was still drowned in unconsciousness and just producing random thoughts since everything he saw was just darkness. He blinked hastily but his eyes told him the same thing. There was nothing to see. He tried to move his hands but even that did not work. Still there was just darkness only broken by some whispers of which he wasn't sure whether they actually existed in the outside world or only in his mind.

Hyunwoo continued to slip in and out of unconsciousness until someone ripped the dark cloth from his head that had been blindfolding him and a harsh slap made sure that he was awake. He stared into a face that he recognized too well for his likings. Piercing dark eyes seemed to stare down into his soul, pursed lips let out a hiss and wrinkles covered the skin of the High Priest's face.

“You are awake. Good”, he murmured and Hyunwoo blinked a few more times, trying to steady his breath and get rid of the remaining drowsiness while unsuccessfully tearing at the rope that tied his wrists to the chair he was sitting on.

“Listen up, young man”, the High Priest said a little louder this time, “this can be either very easy for you or it can be your personal hell. It all depends on the choices you make. Do you understand?”

Hyunwoo just continued to stare at the man.

“I said: Do you understand?”, the High Priest bellowed and the sound of another harsh slap hitting Hyunwoo's cheek filled the room.

Hesitantly Hyunwoo parted his lips. “Yeah”, he mumbled and half expected another slap for the lack of formality in his sentence but the High Priest only gave a satisfied hum. He turned around and paced through the room for a while. The room was small: a table, the chair on which Hyunwoo sat and a box right in front of him, everything trapped between four black walls. Somehow the space was flooded with light although Hyunwoo couldn't see the source of it and it confused him.

“Where are we?”, he croaked with a dry voice that made him wonder for how long exactly he had been unconscious.

The High Priest turned around to him, his dark robes flying around his body in energetic twirls as if they had their own life.

“In the Magic World”, he answered and came back into Hyunwoo's field of vision.

It took Hyunwoo a few moments to process the words and swallow his panic. The Magic World was really not the place where he wanted to be.

“And what do you want?”, he asked, trying to make his voice sound strong and confident but the look in the man's eyes told him that the High Priest didn't quite believe the act.

“You don't know?”

“If I did, would I be asking?”, Hyunwoo hissed and the little vein on his temple began to pulsate visibly as he got more annoyed than intimidated by the priest's behaviour.

The man furrowed his brows. “Maybe I had thought of you as more intelligent than you actually are”, he thought out loud and then came even closer to Hyunwoo, leaning in so that the boy could feel his breath on his face, “What I want is a new curse. And you are going to cast it.”

A curse? Hyunwoo's thoughts began racing. How was he supposed to cast a curse?

“I need a new curse since you boys destroyed the old one. The Sect needs a curse. It's our god and without it there will be chaos. I need the curse to rule over them like I did before. And also”, he made a short pause before he continued, “I need the curse to kill that bastard of a son that I have. He's running around saying the forbidden words to that disgusting boy of his. Nobody can leave the Sect. Especially not if they intend to live like him as an abomination of nature. He needs to die. And the new curse is going to kill him. Do you understand?”

The High Priest waited until Hyunwoo had nodded slowly and then turned around and walked over to the wooden box that was sitting on the floor. Hyunwoo shook his head in disbelief and bit his lip to keep himself from shouting in anger. Did the High Priest really think he would cast a curse that would be able to kill Hyungwon? Even if he could cast spells which he was very sure was a thing that he could not do, why would he agree to killing a friend?

He watched the Priest closely who pulled a big book out of the box. It was almost as big as his torso and at least as thick as Hyunwoo's arms.

“This is another spell book that we have obtained over the years. We can't really read it, only a wizard can. But I'm pretty sure that there is a curse in here. And if not, I think you will figure one out.”

Hyunwoo snorted. “How am I supposed to read that? I'm not a wizard.”

The priest looked at him in surprise and then started laughing loudly. “Of course you are a wizard. (A/N: You're a wizard, Harry *out*) You were the alpha to those werewolves even though you are not a wolf yourself. Only wizards can have that effect on werewolves. I'm surprised that the old alpha didn't figure it out sooner. Also it was your magic that kept your friend from turning into a werewolf.”

Hyunwoo thought of Mr Wang. Jackson had assured them that his father was just out of town but the way the priest spoke about him gave Hyunwoo doubts. Before his thoughts could go any further the priest had laid the book into his lap. It was heavy, heavier than Hyunwoo had imagined and he looked at it with as much hatred as he had for the priest. The priest was probably delusional. He wasn't a wizard and even if he was he would never cast that spell. Hyunwoo was about to voice his protest when the priest silenced him with a quick movement of his hand and said something himself.

“And by the way, in case that you don't want to cast the curse because it will hurt one of your friends, I have something here that might motivate you.”

He strode past Hyunwoo and the boy heard a door open somewhere behind him. A cage was carried into the room by four dark robed figures and placed onto the table. The figures stepped aside letting Hyunwoo see the inside of it.

Hyunwoo let out a small cry of anger, sadness and desperation when he recognized Hoseok whose body was changing from a whining wolf to a boy cringing in pain and back again.

“What the hell, man?”, Hyunwoo hissed and tore harder at his ties but only injured himself with that.

The High Priest looked from Hoseok to him.

“We gave him a potion that won't let his body change. So right now he is trapped between the human form and that of a werewolf but it sure is painful for him as you can see. Isn't it, darling?”, the priest said menacingly and knocked against the cage. Hoseok howled in response, eyes shut and muscles flexing uncontrollably.

“The pain could maybe even kill him if he has to endure it for too long. But I think you figured that out already. Anyway, we have another potion which will cancel out the effects of this one and I will give that to him when I have my new curse. So it's your choice. Who do you want to save? Your pet or the bastard that got you into this mess?”

Hyunwoo scowled at the High Priest and clenched his teeth. He hated that man with a passion right now but that didn't solve the dilemma. Whichever choice he would make, he couldn't save everyone, could he?

“Let me read your damn book”, he hissed as he had to admit to himself that seeing Hoseok in pain was tearing him apart inside more than the thought of Hyungwon dying.

“I knew that yo